Raiola is solid/good in pass protection and makes the line calls. It would probably fall under Stafford if Raiola is gone. Run blocking he sucks. If once again the Lions have other holes to fill like DE/Safety/CB/speed WR/speed RB, they may just ask Raiola to take a pay cut instead of an all out cut so they get one more year out of him. Especially if they are cutting Peterman too.

I'm thinking Trufant has passed the eye test and looks worthy of the 2nd round pick. I think he could walk in off the street and challenge Houston. At the very least, he should be able to hold a starting spot.

You don't cut your starting center unless you have a replacement, which I really don't think we have at this moment.

Honestly I think Dylan Gandy and Bill Nagy could do just as well run blocking as Raiola/Peterman. Pass protection probably not as good as Raiola but Peterman sucked last year in pass protection. I'd prefer a mauling guard though in Round 3 and Raiola taking a pay cut with Nagy as the backup.

Unfortunately I think the Lions are going to be forced to keep someone they don't really want to. The old players like Backus, KVB,and Buleson at least one of them is going to have to stay maybe more if guys like Delmas and Avril are forced into free agency and or Titus Young gets traded. Which is the Lions major problem. They have needs at CB and S even without those problems

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Yeah Broyles knee injury and Young's antics means we need to keep Burleson, on a pay cut. Which thankfully Burleson hinted at. I think keeping him is a good thing, he was still productive this year. Good insurance if Broyles isn't ready early.

Delmas and Houston, if we lose either we better find a very similar player in free agency. There are a good number of safeties thankfully in free agency and teams may shy away from Delmas due to injuries. Some rookie won't do in the short term. Second round safety should be paired with Delmas, not his replacement. Long term Milliner may be a stud but if the Lions lose Houston/don't replace him with a vet and just draft Milliner, we got worse in the short term IMO because it's a rookie as your number 1 CB.

Backus all depends on if they want to try to keep Gosder and Backus he wants to retire.

If they keep KVB on that cap number they are idiots. He has to be cut. And if he takes a 5 million pay cut to stay, he better be a backup not a starter. KVB was pure garbage last year. 0 sacks in the last 10 games, terrible run defense and no consistent pressure. He's done but the coaching staff still loves him. They are living a little too much in the past with him. Jackson should have started over KVB by midseason at the very least for run defense.

Yeah Broyles knee injury and Young's antics means we need to keep Burleson, on a pay cut. Which thankfully Burleson hinted at. I think keeping him is a good thing, he was still productive this year. Good insurance if Broyles isn't ready early.

Delmas and Houston, if we lose either we better find a very similar player in free agency. There are a good number of safeties thankfully in free agency and teams may shy away from Delmas due to injuries. Some rookie won't do in the short term. Second round safety should be paired with Delmas, not his replacement. Long term Milliner may be a stud but if the Lions lose Houston/don't replace him with a vet and just draft Milliner, we got worse in the short term IMO because it's a rookie as your number 1 CB.

Backus all depends on if they want to try to keep Gosder and Backus he wants to retire.

If they keep KVB on that cap number they are idiots. He has to be cut. And if he takes a 5 million pay cut to stay, he better be a backup not a starter. KVB was pure garbage last year. 0 sacks in the last 10 games, terrible run defense and no consistent pressure. He's done but the coaching staff still loves him. They are living a little too much in the past with him. Jackson should have started over KVB by midseason at the very least for run defense.

I completely agree on most of those points. I think burleson will be back but it will depend on how much of a pay cut he takes. We can't just scheffle in 3 new receivers behind Calvin, give Stafford some consistency and keep Burleson.

Either Raiola or Peterman will be gone, if not both. This all depends on what moves Mayhew makes and this cut won't happen until after the draft.

Reiff needs to start next year, thus backus or gosder will be gone (unless they think backus can move inside).

KVB MUST be gone. Ge gets paid way too much and is awful. THis is an easy cut IMO.

I can't fathom Mayhew allowing Delmas and Houston to walk. Simplye because it will cripple us short term and I don't think Mayhew will be willing to allow that to happen (as I have said before, I think he loses his job if he doesn't make the playoffs).

Adding Washburn to our defensive staff makes me believe more and more that we will be targeting a DE first round. They say washburn will be focusing on the dline, which would mean he and our dline coach will both be coaching this group. If you were planning on having a Dline full of veteran DE's and Suh and Fairley inside, why pay 2 coaches to coach them up?

Probably the fact that he's still a top 10 C, but that's just my guess. Look at how desperate teams are for Cs. The Packers signed Jeff freakin' Saturday, who Raiola has always been better than, and he got voted to the damn pro bowl. The Broncos had to go with Dan Koppen, Jeff Faine is still getting phone calls etc. Get a mauler at RG next to him to help him out though.

He wants Franchise QB money, plus he is coming off the torn ACL. I'm sure he'd be fine Health wise, but right now I think we should avoid any player that has had anything more than a bruise in their lifetime.

Gosder - lost his job to Reiff and simply not worth the money he is getting

Williams - With Suh, Fairley and Hill, we can afford to drop Williams who is getting long in the tooth

Titus Young - hopefully, we can trade him for a mid round pick

Peterson?Delmas - both are on the hot seat for different reasons, Peterson is still a need if Gosder goes and Reiff plays RT. Delmas is never going to complete a season, the most you will ever get out of him is 10 games, if that. Is he worth the money for 8-10 games???

As for the draft, it looks like it will come down to Moore DE, Milliner CB and Werner DE.

If we don't cut KVB, I will be absolutely enraged. And I think you mean Peterman, who can be replaced with a mid round pick on the interior. He's been the weak part of our line for the last three years or so.

Peterman may already be replaced with Bill Nagy. He was a starter in Dallas but had an ankle injury. Mayhew swiped him and stashed him from waivers while Dallas tried to IR him and Mayhew put him on IR after waiting until the season started. He can play center too I think.

Agreed on KVB. They have to realize how bad he sucks. If they are going to play favorites with old players, this should be Schwartz last year if KVB is a starter in 2013.

Gosder all depends on if Backus retires. They'll have money to re-sign him if Backus retires.

Let's say Star Lotulelei falls to us at #5. Do we take him and then put Suh on the trade block? We'd continue to be very strong at DT, pick up a quality DB and or draft picks, and relieve a lot of cap pressure.

Let's say Star Lotulelei falls to us at #5. Do we take him and then put Suh on the trade block? We'd continue to be very strong at DT, pick up a quality DB and or draft picks, and relieve a lot of cap pressure.

What do you guys think about Suh moving to DE? We could cut KVB and the D- Line would look like...

Avril/Draft pick - Williams/SLH - Fairley - Suh

It helps our cap situation and puts our best 4 D linemen on the field. Even if it is only for the season while we figure out what to do with Suh. It would allow the rest of the draft to concern ourselves with CB, Safety, and Oline.

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Stafford Sig by touchdownrams the rest of the sig by Sig Master Bone Krusher Avy by King of all avys renji

My main rationale for my earlier thought was based on our need to free up cap space. Don't get me wrong, I love Suh. But something's gotta give and we can only re-structure the 3 big contracts so many times before we have to either cut or trade. I'd suggest Suh would be odd man out. So why not dump when we can maximize value IF we can replace with reasonable talent/draft picks.

*Edit: I'll further qualify the above by saying that if the cap rises as much as I've heard it will for 2014 (+/- $136mil), then we should be alright moving forward.

I didn't watch the senior bowl practice; however I read the review of the game and at the bottom Scott wrote: "the team with less talent and was coached more poorly won". Does anyone have any insight into why the Lions staff "coached poorly?.

Let's say Star Lotulelei falls to us at #5. Do we take him and then put Suh on the trade block? We'd continue to be very strong at DT, pick up a quality DB and or draft picks, and relieve a lot of cap pressure.

Thoughts?

I really don't think that makes us any better as a team in the short term trading Suh for a talented yet unproven Star. Especiallly if there are DEs or Milliner sitting there. And they have to be in win in 2013 mode. Of course you better get another 1st rounder which would be nice.

It would save a little over 5 million in space to trade Suh with 12 million still in dead cap money. However, going forward we would be in much better shape. If someone wows us with an offer and is willing to take on Suh's 11 million salary for two years (or more likely give him a new deal) then it could be on the table. But I think it's highly doubtful given that SLH and CW are free agents and Fairley has had some injuries.

The only way you consider it if it's a team like Jax. You get the 2nd pick straight up for Suh. They have the cap space to handle 11 million from Suh for 2 years and need a DT/pass rush. They have Babin and Mincey and just drafted Andre Branch in Round 2 last year at DE.

Detroit would get a stud DE and could draft Milliner as well and save some cap space. It's pretty risky though as Suh is a stud DT in pass rush.